Duped Banxso investors targeted again by opportunistic scammers in an investment fraud chain reaction

After losing significant amounts of money investing with Banxso, hapless investors are now being targeted by scamsters claiming that they are investigating the company and can help recover lost funds.

Carl, a farmer, said that after investing R25,000 with Banxso, he realised he had made a mistake and asked for a refund before making a single trade. “After a lot of haggling, I got my money back,” he said.

However, he has since been contacted by “Certik Security Services”, which claimed that Banxso traded with his money before he asked for a refund. “Certik” claimed Banxso made R275,000 on crypto using Carl’s money and “Certik” now wanted to refund him. Except, it wants Carl to pay it a commission of 2.5%. Carl quite rightly smelled a rat and has not handed over any money to “Certik”.

Another investor, Devron, had been saving for five years before he was convinced to invest with Banxso and then lost R250,000 over three months. On Friday, 27 December, Devron received a call from a foreigner claiming to be from “Certik”. He told Devron that as a victim of a Banxso scam, he was due a refund in bitcoin.

“He told me I had 0.25 bitcoin in my ‘wallet’ and it was worth R300,000. Apparently, the scammers from Banxso used my money to purchase crypto and never invested or traded with my money,” he said.

Devron emailed the company CertiK directly and received this response:

“Please be advised that all official communications from our company will come exclusively from email addresses ending with @certik.com. If you receive any email (or communications in other forms: SMS, calls, etc.) claiming to be from our company but originating from a different domain, we strongly urge you to treat it with caution as it is not from us.

“Unfortunately, there are instances where malicious individuals impersonate our company in an attempt to commit fraud or scams. We take these matters seriously and are actively working to address and prevent such activities.”

CertiK also pointed out that you should not share any personal, financial or confidential information in response to unsolicited emails, especially if the sender’s authenticity is in doubt.

“We do not ask for money or any currency/cryptocurrency or personal wallet information, credit card information or any other type of payment in unsolicited emails or other communications. We do not perform wallet recovery or similar services. CertiK does not solicit wallet recovery services from victims of fraud and any communication related to such services by CertiK is fraudulent and/or a scam,” said CertiK.

Another investor, Vanashri, told Daily Maverick that she was contacted last Friday by someone claiming to be from Banxso. The caller told her that “someone had stolen the remaining funds in my account and traded them for $12,000 worth of cryptocurrency without my permission. When I checked the Banxso app, I noticed the address on my profile was incorrect. I told them to return the funds to the same account they came from.

“However, they said I needed to set up a cryptocurrency account to get the refund and that they would call me later to help with that. They also asked me to download the AnyDesk app to assist with training and setting up the account,” she said.

The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) confirmed on Wednesday that it had received complaints from Banxso investors of similar contact made by people claiming to be investigating Banxso who said they had located the investors’ funds.

“These persons contacting members of the public use different names and entities, as well as falsely claiming to be representing legitimate entities and regulators. The public is advised to be on the lookout for the tell-tale danger signs when dealing with persons offering to claim or recover funds on behalf of clients. These red flags include requiring clients’ personal details, financial information, access to bank accounts or crypto wallets and requiring payment of funds for investments to be paid back,” warned the FSCA.

Banxso’s trading licence has been suspended and the company is facing a liquidation application in the Western Cape Division of the High Court.

Read more: Banxso scandal: How an investor lost almost half a million in only eight days

Attorney Pierre du Toit of Mostert Bosman Attorneys, who is representing complainant Carol Wentzel in the matter, told Daily Maverick the liquidation application had been postponed to 17 March.

“We insisted, as a prerequisite for a postponement, that all these funds held in the so-called segregated client accounts of Banxso, had to be preserved in terms of a court order, pending the finalisation of the liquidation application. Banxso has agreed to this,” he said. DM